


Crossroads

by Lacertae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, F/F, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Girls with Guns, M/M, Multi, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 03:31:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2009283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Beta OT4, pre-relationship Harry Potter AU* Written for Bonus round 1 of HWC</p><p>John, Jade, Rose and Dave meet for the first time on the Hogwarts Express.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossroads

**Author's Note:**

> I like this idea, and I love the beta kids a lot. Maybe i'll continue this with more scenes, who knows...

“Jade, wait!”

A black-haired girl with a pair of big, round glasses stopped her bouncing and twisted her head around, blinking and waiting for the older man, dressed in an explorer attire, to get to her side.

Her name was Jade Harley, and she was embarking in her first adventure outside of the realm of the Island she lived in with her grandpa, because she was a witch, and she would soon be taught how to use magic at the most famous European School for Magic, Hogwarts. She was more than ready to try and have a lot of fun!

Of course she should have perhaps gone to one of the American schools, since her island was closer to the American continent rather than Europe, but her grandpa only wanted the best for her, so Hogwarts it was.

She was pushing a big truck with a lot of carvings on its sides, and on top there was a cage with a completely white owl, which hooted in dislike at the sudden stop, glaring at the elder explorer.

“What grandpa? I don’t want to be late for the train’s departure! Hurry up hurry up!”

The man, Jade’s grandpa, pushed his glasses up his nose and made a soft harrumph. “Did you remember to pick up everything, pumpkin?”

Jade wrinkled her nose, trying to remember, then glanced down at her fingers, which were covered in colourful elastic bands. “I have my clothes,” she pulled on a blue one on her thumb, “I have Antheia,” she smiled up at her owl, who hooted down at her with a softer edge than she’d reserved to the grandparent, “my wand in my pocket, the books…” she tapped a few more elastics, then blinked. “Isn’t that all?”

Grandpa Harley shook his head in disappointment. “Jade, you forgot the most important thing…” he pulled his arms from behind his back, revealing a small and compact rifle, the best weapon for long range that any young girl could ever want. “What did I tell you about never leaving without your trusted rifle?”

“Ah!” Jade fidgeted a bit, then reached out and grabbed the offered rifle with a guilty face. “Sorry grandpa! I was so busy reading the Herbology book that I forgot!”

The older man ruffled her hair gently, and nodded to signal she was forgiven. “Just remember to keep it with you, ok? My little girl is going away, but I hope you will still act like the rightful heir of the Harley line!”

“Of course grandpa!” with a huge smile, Jade placed the rifle on the side of her trunk, then hugged him once more. “Do you want to come through the barrier with me?”

“I think these things are best left to the young generations, you’ll so busy meeting new people that you will forget your old grandpa waving at you from the side…” the man said with a fake tone of sadness, then winked at his grandchild to show he was just kidding. “Give your old grandpa another hug before you leave, and remember to write me ok?”

She hurled herself at him, giving him a squeeze that left him wheezing –oh yes, definitely a worthy heir– and he kissed her forehead, making her giggle. “Now go, little pumpkin! The train ride will take a while, but don’t spend the whole ride reading, ok?”

“Nooo grandpa, I promise!”

While they were giving their goodbyes, as Jade would soon depart towards Hogwarts, school of Wizardry and Witchcraft, another family of two walked towards the barrier separating the wizard train Express with the Muggle train station.

The tallest was a man in his forties, though by the way he moved and kept himself, he seemed way younger than that; he seemed pretty normal, dressed in muggle clothes (a white polo and jeans and a hat), if not for the gaudy triangular shades he had on his nose. The shorter was a kid, also leaving for his first year at Hogwarts, and was wearing a pair of triangular shades as well, possibly to mimick the older man.

Both were pushing a cart with a trunk on it, much like Jade, except the owl on top was a small brown thing with a pair of wide red eyes, which seemed to glare and observe everything at once. It was a Japanese scops owl,

“Now listen, lil’ bro,” the taller of the two started, kneeling in front of the boy with a carefully blank expression. “Go and mess everything up, ok?”

‘Lil bro’, whose actual name was Dave Strider, nodded solemnly at his older bro, Bro Strider –sometimes it was hard to remember that wasn’t his real name, but it was amusing how everybody called him Bro nonetheless– and perked up instantly when Bro offered him a fist to bump, which he did, attempting to look as cool and aloft as his older brother but not quite reaching his self-imposed standards.

“I’ll send you a letter through Gerom when I’ve been sorted,” he assured Bro, nodding to him.

“You’d better,” Bro smiled dangerously, promising pain in case Dave forgot. “Cal can carry a lot of stuff to you if you don’t”.

Dave’s face turned white at the mention of Bro’s owl Cal, named after Bro’s scary puppet Lil Cal, and shook his head frantically. He would definitely _not_ forget.

“Now go, before you miss the train and I have to make you run all the way to the castle, kiddo”.

Dave pushed up his shades, grabbed the edge of his trunk, and impassively walked towards the barrier, not wanting to look as excited as he was about the whole new world waiting for him where he wouldn’t be just Bro’s little bro, but just Dave. He promised himself he would be so cool that everybody would be awed by him.

He strutted towards the barrier, but noticed a girl around his age was also moved that way, so he slowed down and motioned for her to go first.

She smiled at him, and did just that, disappearing behind the barrier. A second later he followed, feeling the ripple of the invisible magic keeping Muggles out pass through him.

On the other side, the girl he’d let go first was waiting on the side, eyes wide at the sight of the Hogwarts Express, and Dave had to try and stop himself from ogling too.

“Hi! Are you also going to Hogwarts this year?”

He blinked in surprise, not having expected anybody to want to speak to him, and he had to stop himself from turning around to look at Bro for support, since Bro wasn’t there. Instead, he pushed his chest out and nodded, trying to look cool. “Yup”.

“I’m Jade Harley,” the girl smiled, then offered him a hand covered with elastic bands.

“Uh, Dave, Dave Strider,” he replied. He wanted to just nod at her, like a coolkid would do, but she grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and he stifled a gasp –damn, the girl was _strong_.

“I can’t wait to get there,” Jade confessed, shuffling a bit. “Grandpa said there are giant gardens there”.

The two moved towards the Hogwarts Express, climbing up and tugging the trunks up with them. Jade got her own up without a problem, then helped a flustered Dave get his own inside as well, despite his protests that it wouldn’t be cool to have her do all the work for him.

“Pshh, maybe you can put on some muscle and then you can do it next year, ok?” Jade smiled cheekly at him, and Dave snickered against his own better judgement.

“Could just learn a spell,” he replied tapping the trunk where his wand was.

“Yes, but then you wouldn’t exercise!” trying her best to keep her expression serious, but failing as a giggle escaped her, Jade tried to mime a blob walking, arms boneless and legs bending.

“Nah man, Bro would get my hide if I didn’t train while at school,” he shuffled with his trunk, pushing out a wrapped cloth to reveal a blade inside. “Gotta keep my skills sharp”.

“Ooh, that’s so cool!” Jade perked up instantly. “A sword! My grandpa would never let me keep a blade…”

Dave straightened his back, feeling happy for being appreciated by the girl, then deflated a bit when Jade pulled out her rifle.

“Grandpa says no good lady would be caught not having one of those at hand,” she said, brushing her hand over the length of the rifle. “Maybe…” she lowered her voice. “Maybe we could swap sometimes and I can teach you how to shoot if you teach me how to use a sword!”

Speechless, Dave could only nod.

“So you come from a muggle family?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Nah,” Jade put the rifle away. She seemed to realise that they were standing in the middle of the train corridor, so she pulled Dave with her into a compartment, sitting down and putting her legs up on the seat.

Dave sat in front of her, still a bit awkward but not as much as before.

“My grandpa went to Hogwarts,” Jade explained, flicking her trunk open to retrieve a book. She flicked it open until she found the right page, then she showed Dave an old moving photo of a teenager riding a broom. “My grandpa was the captain of the Quidditch team when he was here”.

Dave was torn between nodding appreciatively and shrugging –he’d never really gotten the hang out of sports, muggle and wizardly alike– and ended up tilting his head to the side in what hoped would look like understanding.

There was a soft tapping sound on the door of their compartment, and both Dave and Jade turned to look as a blond girl dressed completely in black slid the door open and blinked at them.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice even and warm. “Is this compartment full?”

“Nah, c’mon in,” Dave made a ‘come hither’ motion, keeping his chin high. “The more the merrier”.

“Thank you,” she slid inside, carefully holding a cage in her arms, and she placed it down. Much to Dave and Jade’s surprise, it did not contain an owl, but instead a black cat with a red bowtie.

“It took me a little bit to remove myself from my mother’s presence, and I was worried I would find the train full,” she stated, turning around to get her truck inside. “I was afraid she would indulge herself in more theatrics and embarrass me with goodbyes, so I had to slip away while she was distracted…”

Dave and Jade exchanged a look, then both shrugged.

“I’m Jade Harley,” Jade decided to say, smiling at the newcomer. “And this is coolkid Dave Strider!”

Dave puffed his chest out a bit, happy that Jade had instantly caught onto the whole coolkid façade, and nodded.

“I’m Rose Lalonde, it is a pleasure to see you,” her speech style was a bit too pompous, but neither of the two kids minded. “And this is Jasper”.

“Meow!” the cat purred and rubbed its body against the cage bars, blinking its eyes up at them.

“He’s my familiar,” Rose continued with a poised smile.

“Why didn’t you get an owl?” Jade asked, shuffling forwards to look at the cat.

“I have no need to send messages home, and if I’ll have to, then the school owls will suffice,” Rose replied smoothly, sitting down.

She was aware that her mother would probably send at least one letter every week, if not more, and she’d have to politely find the best ways to counterattack Mom’s words of love and pride with something equally cool and passive-aggressive. After all, Mom had tried to send her to school with her own Thestral, and Rose had barely managed to hide her own enjoyment and desire to indulge and bring him with her.

Alas, Theodor Von Thunderstorm would only receive her attention during summer holidays.

Maybe by then, if she had studied enough, she would get him a tentacle friend through a summoning ritual.

With a smile, she took a book from her trunk and flipped it open. She was ok with interacting, but she was not yet sure what to think about the two other kids in her compartment, and observing them spoke volumes more than just listening to them talk. She would do both.

Dave’s eyebrows rose at the title he could read from where he was sitting –‘ _Mysterious And Foreign Creatures Of The Deep End_ ’, written by Goldburn Rockskin– and then he shrugged to himself, grabbing a notepad and a pen from his own truck.

“You should try to get used to quills,” Rose casually offered, glancing up from her book at the same time as Jade asked, “what are you writing?”

“Nah, I’m not gonna use quills, those things are uncool,” Dave fidgeted, reminded of his less than appreciable meeting with quills, which only resulted in his hands covered with ink and a page full of blots. “Ain’t no poet, so I’ll write stuff with my pen. Never got to understand why you can’t be modern _and_ have magic, like it wouldn’t hurt to get couple things like my DJ set at Hogwarts but no, wizards and technology are like orange juice ‘n mint, you try tasting some sweet juice after brushing your teeth and bam,” he opened his arms wide, “your mouth feels like the End has come, writhing taste buds retreating and screaming for cold murder while your minty toothpaste cackles loudly from the bathroom sink–” he interrupted his rant, suddenly uncomfortably aware that both Jade and Rose were staring at him, one smiling and the other looking like she was pondering something interesting. “ah, uh. Yeah, no, pen’s my buddy here”.

He then seemed to realise Jade had asked a question, and opened his mouth to answer when the door slid open again, this time without anybody knocking, and a head full of black hair popped inside.

“Hey, there’s still space here!” the boy slid the door open fully and marched inside, smiling with his overbite at the other three teenagers and flopping down on the last free seat, tugging his trunk without care until it was awkwardly placed at his feet. “Hi! My name’s John Egbert!” he glanced at each of them, then rummaged in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a gum pack. “Anyone wants a gum?” he offered.

Dave, Jade and Rose blinked, then Dave hesitantly reached out with his hand, while Rose, noticing John’s lips twitching upwards, shook her head and placed one hand on Jade’s arm, preventing her from accepting.

Dave grabbed one of the gum sticks and tugged, and a second later something metallic snapped on his finger, and he felt a wave of pain travel from his finger up to his arm. He stifled a gasp and pulled away, nursing his hurt hand with his other, and glared at the offending gum, which was a simple muggle fake-gum trick with a spring.

Dave felt his cheeks turn hotter, ashamed of himself for having fallen to such a lowly, silly trick.

“Hey man, why would you trick me with the sweet promise of a gum only to trick me out!”

But the kid wasn’t listening, he was snickering with one hand over his mouth and the other holding the muggle prank gum packet.

“Should have seen your face!” he wheezed, slumping down on the seat. “It was just a prank! Man, if I can get a muggleborn like this, I can’t wait to start pranking the purebloods, they won’t even know what’s coming!”

Jade was giggling too, though less because of Dave being pranked and more because of John’s amusement. “I’m Jade,” she said with a soft smile.

“Rose,” Rose smiled, vaguely amused. “And the coolkid you pranked is Dave,” she offered, when Dave refused to say his own name.

John looked at him, still smirking, “Coolkid? Is it because of the shades?” and then, before Dave could answer that yes, the shades were part of his cool persona, “they actually make you look like a dork…”

And then, without missing a beat, he rummaged through a bag he had around his neck and grabbed a pair of regular aviators, offering them to Dave. “Here, don’t let me dissuade you from your attempts at being cool, but maybe you should pick something less silly!”

“Maybe you should refrain from poking fun of other people’s choice of wear, John,” Rose intervened, though the smile on her lips said enough of her stance on the situation. “Dave surely has his reasons for wearing those pointy shades, and I think you did enough with your prank”.

John seemed to think about it for a moment, and his shoulders dropped. “Eh, but Dad always says that you have to start with a good prank to break the ice,” he chuckled, “and I didn’t even use the cake-spell! Oh, and he says you should be honest too,” shrugs. “But I’m still sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you!”

Dave rolled his eyes, though nobody could see that behind his shades, and then forced himself to relax. He could see that the John kid was being honest, and did look apologetic… and well, no coolkid should hold a grudge, right?

“Yeah, yeah, fine, bygones be bygones,” he murmured, waving one hand around.

John seemed to take that as a declaration of friendship, because he moved to high–five Dave’s hand.

“No!” Dave retreated quickly, avoiding the incoming hand. “No high-fives here man, that’s not the way between bros. Here, let me school you properly,” and offered him his fist.

John snorted, but did as he was told and bumped the offered fist. “Oh, you’ll have to teach me all the ways of the coolkid,” he said, smiling. “Except not unless you allow me to teach you the way of the Prankster!”

“Oh! Oh! I want to learn how to be a coolkid _and_ a prankster too!” Jade grabbed Dave and John’s wrists and lifted her own fist, and the two boys let her bump both. Then she looked at Rose, who was smiling but shaking her head. “Rose?”

“I will pass, it seems the Lalonde bloodline will not partake in this passing of knowledge,” she shook her head, then shrugged. “But that does not mean I wouldn’t want to observe you as you so freely offer your knowledge to the new generations”.

John nodded happily, while Dave glared at her a bit, wondering whether she was just making fun of them or not, then shrugged. Despite how cryptic Rose was, she seemed ok. She would definitely have a field day meeting Bro.

With a shudder, Dave decided to never let the two meet. Ever.

“What is it that you plan on doing then?” John was looking directly at Rose, looking at her book and then at her clothes. “Becoming a Dark Witch?”

Jade swatted him on the arm, and Dave froze a bit, but Rose simply chuckled, shaking her head. “John, just because I dress with fine black clothes and have a book on dark arts in my truck does not mean I will be a dark witch,” she winked, her smile warm. “No, I plan on taking the road of a Summoner”.

John made an ‘o’ with his mouth, accepting the reprimand and the correction.

“You have a book on dark arts in your trunk?” Dave zoomed in on the more important part of Rose’s comment.

“If you are willing to make an exchange with me, I would be amenable to lend it to you sometimes,” she told him with a smirk.

Instantly on edge, Dave shuffled backwards. “In exchange for what?”

“I’ll have to think about it,” Rose smiled, but her tone was warm, and her words seemed more like a teasing than anything else.

Dave wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but he surmised it wouldn’t be too bad. Right?

John observed the other kids with a small, amused smile.

Dad Egbert –his real name John would never say, because it made him feel weird to think of his father as a person with a name other than ‘dad’– had been home-schooled by John’s grandmom, Nanna Egbert, who was an old but knowledgeable witch who had lived through both magical wars. She had decided to keep her only son home in order to teach him all she could without the strict curricula the school had had to accept in the years after Voldemort’s threat, at the same time cultivating his pranking talents, which had then passed down to John after his birth.

Now Nanna was a ghost, though still present in the Egbert household, and had accepted Dad’s decision to send John to Hogwarts to give him a chance to find new friends (on which perfect his pranks).

John Egbert wanted to follow the footsteps of the great Weasley Duo, rumoured to be the greatest pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen and now owners of a great joke shop at Hogsmeade, where the Egbert family kept ordering new things to implement their own arsenal.

He was going to become the new terror of Hogwarts, and make a name for himself during the seven years he’d have to call the castle home.

And now, well, he guessed he’d started quite well, with three new potential friends.

Oh yes, life was good.

“So,” he asked, dragging Rose out of her book. “Which house do you think you’ll be sorted into?”


End file.
